Orange Isle

橘子洲 (Juzizhou, Orange Isle) is a long, thin island — six kilometres of park — sitting in the middle of the Xiang River right in front of Changsha, connected to the city by a footbridge at its north end. From the island’s middle, both banks of the city and its bridges look like a drawing that has been finished, and from the city the island looks like a green ship anchored in the current.

The Statue and the Current

The island’s famous resident is the 青年毛泽东雕像 (Young Mao statue) — a 32-metre bust of the chairman as a student, which he was, in Changsha, when he wrote the poem about the oranges of the isle and the cold autumn current. It looks out over the river with the expression of someone reading the water for news. The statue is the reason most people come; the island is the reason they stay.

It is, in the best way, a long walk with no particular goal: orange trees (in October), lawns, the river at both sides, fireworks on national holidays filling the sky above the bridges. There is a metro station on the island now, which has made it easy to reach and slightly harder to feel lost — go anyway, off the main path, and let the river do what rivers do.

Practicalities

• Getting there: metro Line 2 to Juzizhou station, which deposits you on the island; or walk across the north footbridge.
• Best time: October, when the island is named for its fruit and the firework nights are spectacular; a weekday early morning for the solitude.
• Combine with: the Old Post Office Inn? No — combine it with the downtown food streets (Taiping Street, Pozijie) on the west bank, or with the Orange Isle Hostel if you plan to sleep cheaply over the water.

flowcloud would say that Orange Isle is proof that a city does not need a mountain to have a view — it needs a green island in its river and twenty minutes of walking to remember where it lives.

Getting there: Metro Line 2 to Juzizhou. Walk the island south toward the statue, then back along the opposite bank for the city you came to see.